This invention relates to a refrigerator showcase for displaying and selling food such as ice cream.
The refrigerator showcase of this type generally cools, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-open Application No. Hei 2-6988 (F25D23/02), a storeroom provided inside an insulating box body thereof by a cooling apparatus. The insulating box body being open upward is usually closed by a glass door capable of opening and closing. The glass door is supported in the back end of the insulating box body rotatably in the upper and lower side directions. The showcase displays and keeps food in the storeroom so as to enable to pick the food out by holding up the front side of the glass door to open it.
A refrigerator showcase of another type, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. Hei 3-30071 (F25D23/02), cools a storeroom provided inside an insulating wall thereof by a cooling apparatus. The insulating wall being open forward is usually closed by a glass door capable of opening and closing and rotatably supported by the insulating wall. The showcase displays and keeps food in the storeroom so as to enable customers to see the inside through the glass door during selecting food and open the door for picking the food out.
When such refrigerator showcases are applied for displaying and selling frozen food such as ice cream, each storeroom is cooled at freezing temperature below the freezing point, so that dewing can easily occur on the upper surface of the glass door exposing to the air. The dewing occurring on the upper surface of the glass door deteriorates the view of the inside. Furthermore, drops of dew can be splashed outward from the lowest position of the glass door when the door is opened thus making the vicinity of the showcase dirty.
In order to prevent the problems mentioned above, the conventional showcase disclosed in the Japanese Patent Laid-open Application No. Hei 3-30071 provides a glass door in which a printed heater is stuck on the opposite surface to that facing the outside. The glass door with such a heater, however, increases the cost in manufacturing. Also, the heater is less useful to prevent the frame body of the door from dewing, so that another heater can be required for prevention of the dewing to frame body. Furthermore, the heater runs hot all over the glass door so as to affect the storeroom side in temperature. In other words, the heater makes the temperature of the storeroom high, so that a load of the cooling apparatus of the showcase increases, resulting in requirement to improve the capacity of the cooling apparatus.
In addition, in conventional glass doors, for example as shown in the above-mentioned applications, each which is formed by inserting the periphery of the plate glass in the frame body, thus extremely making the assembly of the door complicate.